Focus on cash trail behind house purchase

ANALYSIS:THE TRIBUNAL is inquiring into the details behind Bertie Ahern's renting and then purchase of his current home on Beresford Avenue, off Griffith Avenue in Dublin, because it finds it difficult to accept the version it has been told by the main players involved.

The reason it is interested, although this has not been explicitly stated, is the possibility that Ahern might have had money available to him in the early to mid-1990s that he has not disclosed to the tribunal.

Ahern and Manchester-based Micheál Wall have told the tribunal Wall bought the house in 1994/1995 and that he and Ahern agreed that Ahern would rent it with an option to purchase later. Both men used the same solicitor, the late Gerry Brennan, and in 1996 Brennan drafted a will for Wall in which he left the house to Ahern and, if Ahern predeceased him, to Ahern's daughters. In 1997, after Brennan died, Ahern bought the house from Wall, both men using separate solicitors.

Ahern's partner at the time, Celia Larkin, located and viewed the house prior to its purchase. Wall did not see inside the house until it had been purchased. Larkin oversaw the construction of a conservatory and the purchase of fittings. The tribunal has been told that both Ahern and Wall contributed, with some of Wall's money going on the interior fittings. The price Wall paid Ahern in 1997 meant that Wall made a loss on the house.

For the first time yesterday tribunal counsel directly raised the idea that the house might have been purchased by Wall acting as a front for Ahern, and using Ahern's money. Asked by Henry Murphy SC if this idea had ever crossed her mind, Larkin said: "Never."

What cannot be disputed is that on December 5th, 1994, Larkin opened two bank accounts in her name. She transferred £50,000 from two of Ahern's accounts into one of the new accounts, and into the other she lodged £28,772.90. The bank was instructed to hold within the branch correspondence on the account into which she had lodged the £50,000.

Within a month the £50,000 was withdrawn in cash and the money trail ends. Wall later took out a mortgage of £96,600 when buying the Beresford house for £138,000. When stamp duty is taken into account, the difference between the mortgage and the cost of the house is approximately £50,000.

The figure £50,000 turns up again when Wall sells the house to Ahern in 1997. With the money received he settled the mortgage and lodged the rest to an account in Galway. A short time afterwards he withdrew £50,000 in cash and the money trail ends.

Wall and Ahern say the second amount lodged by Larkin in December 1994, the £28,772.90, is the Irish pound equivalent of sterling cash Wall gave to Ahern to be used to fund the conservatory. The tribunal has pointed out that the amount lodged equates to exactly $45,000 when a dollar exchange rate in use on the day is applied.

Larkin played a key role in the dealings involving the house in late 1994 and 1995 but had very little to tell the tribunal yesterday. At one stage she said she was not aware of the price of the house she located and later refurbished. When it was pointed out to her that the amount lodged in December 1994 (£78,772.90), and which she said was being put aside for renovation and refurbishment, was huge in comparison to the price paid for the house (£138,000), she said: "I didn't think about it."

Happily for Ahern, the new curtains and other furnishings only cost £20,000 in the end, and not the £50,000 he has told the tribunal he set aside. Ahern returns to the tribunal today.